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Honour AIDS workers on MH17: UN AIDS chief

The tragic loss of delegates killed on the way to an AIDS conference in Melbourne should be used to push the life-saving agenda of the meeting, the UN AIDS chief says.

The 20th International AIDS Conference was nearly cancelled after it emerged many of the 298 who died when Flight MH17 crashed in Ukraine were delegates and their family members.

The former president of the International AIDS Society (IAS) and "giant" of HIV research, Joep Lange, was on board.

Organisers still don't know how many of the 12,000 researchers coming to Melbourne for the five-day conference were aboard MH17.

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Media reports put the number at 108, but a spokesman for the International Aids Society said there had been no confirmation of that figure.

UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe said the tragedy should be used to bring the dreams of the delegates into reality.

"We should use this day, which is a very difficult day for us, to transform it," Mr Sidibe said in Melbourne on Friday.

"We should use this moment of sadness as a moment for us to push our agenda; our agenda for saving lives of millions of people."

His sentiments were echoed by International AIDS Society president Francoise Barre-Sinoussi.

"The decision to go on, we were thinking about them because we know it's really what they would have liked us to do," Prof Barre-Sinoussi said.

She said the number of delegates on the flight remains unknown.

"We don't have the confirmation (of numbers)," she said.

"We don't know how many were on that flight."

US-based IAS president-elect Chris Beyrer told reporters in Melbourne it was not yet known how many "friends and colleagues" had been lost, but the death of Prof Lange meant "the HIV/AIDS movement has truly lost a giant".

Delegates held a candle-lit vigil on Melbourne's Yarra Bridge on Friday evening.

HIV worker Andrew Lesa, a delegate from New Zealand, said many of those who died were "giants in the industry".

"Their loss will be a big loss to the movement," Mr Lesa told AAP.

He said continuing with the conference was the best way to honour those who died.

"I don't think they would want it to be cancelled."

The conference is the major scientific event for HIV, and speakers include former US president Bill Clinton and Sir Bob Geldof via video link, and UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe.

The City of Melbourne cancelled a fireworks display that was to mark the opening of the conference.

A spokesman for the World Health Organisation (WHO) was also among those killed.

Glenn Thomas was headed to Melbourne for the AIDS conference on Flight MH17, WHO communications official Gregory Hartl has told reporters in Geneva.

"It is with deep sadness that WHO lost one of our colleagues in the Malaysia crash," Mr Hartl said.